Why I’ve finally had it with my Linux server and I’m moving back to Windows

This is a rant. But I’m so angry and frustrated right now that you’re just going to have to live with the rant. And, for you Linux people, you who know it all and look down upon the people who don’t spend day and night breathing in the insane arcana of all the little fiddly bits that make up modern distros, I have this to say: I don’t have your kind of time.

I’ve had it. I’ve had it with all the patched together pieces and parts that all have to be just the right versions, with just the right dependencies, compiled in just the right way, during just the right phase of the moon, with just the right number of people tilting left at just the right time.

I’ve had it with all the different package managers. With some code distributed with one package manager and other code distributed with other package managers. With modules that can be downloaded on Ubuntu just by typing the sequence in the anemic how-to, but won’t work at all on CentOS or Fedora, because the repositories weren’t specified in just, exactly, EXACTLY, the right frickin’ order on the third Wednesday of the month.

I’ve had it with all the different shells and UIs. With builds and distros that won’t even launch into a UI until you’ve established a solid SSH connection, downloaded all the parts, recompiled the package manager, and then — while the network connection happens almost like magic — still need to completely set up a remote monitor screen by tweaking yet. Another. Frak-lapping. Ini. File.

zdnet.com: I don’t know exactly what happened with fellow ZDNet writer David Gewirtz’s Linux server, but I do know it was bad. Really bad.

He’s been having constant trouble updating and managing his software. The final straw was when he tried to install some updates to his hosted CentOS, a Red Hat Enterprise Linux clone, and it blew up on him.

His conclusion was that you need to be a Linux guru to keep a simple Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Python/Perl (LAMP) up and running properly. I beg to differ.

Submitted by blackbelt_jones on Saturday 22nd of October 2011 07:22:16 PM.

I remember reading a an article by a college professor who had given up on Linux because he couldn't figure out how to install flashplayer. Was he, as some suggested, an idiot? That's not relevant. If the software doesn't work for him, it may be his fault or it may be the software's fault. Either way, he should stop using the software. But other people claim good results from Linux servers. These people should keep using it. And everybody should stop writing uninformative rants for ZDnet.

If the only posts on the web are fanboy "everything's oh so fabulous" how will anything get improved?

The reason there are a bazillion distros and similar apps in the open source world is because most open source devs do NOT listen to any feedback (constructive or rant). The only thing that seems to get past their narcissist ego shields is all the fanboy drooling, so we end up with Gnome 3 and KDE 4 and stupid app names and bugs that stick thru release after release.

Just because it's free doesn't mean it should suck. More people need to be less accommodating and more bitchy so that someday, maybe quality control will be something the open source devs actually think about.

Submitted by blackbelt_jones on Saturday 22nd of October 2011 10:44:28 PM.

>>More people need to be less accommodating and more bitchy so that someday, maybe quality control will be something the open source devs actually think about.

Not on ZDNET! ZDNet appears to be one long Linux/Windows flame war. I think we need more quality control in our tech blogs, but if you think there's something useful to be learned from this, I guess I'll just say "pardon me", and resolve to stand corrected.

Most people think magazines are published for the information, or for entertainment, and they're wrong. Magazines are published in order to put advertisement in front of eyeballs - period.

So of course ZDNet favors Windows, and Mac's, and anything else that actually sells for money and therefore is willing (and able) to pay for advertisements.

Very few open source projects have any money at all, and what little they do have they're using it to buy bean bag chairs for their mom's basement and not piddling it away on expensive magazine ad's. Joking aside, even the big name open source projects don't advertise (or at least not very much) because they're already market leaders for what they do - who hasn't heard of Apache or Samba or Squid? How much more market share could they obtain if they spent real money on advertising - probably not enough to provide a good ROI.

Submitted by blackbelt_jones on Sunday 23rd of October 2011 12:47:06 AM.

Actually, my favorite pro-Linux site (justlinux.com) has been almost entirely supported by Microsoft advertising for years. Linux users are highly represented among IT decision-makers, and Microsoft wants to get them back. But nothing gets more advertising in front of more eyeballs than controversy and boneheaded flame wars, ZDNet posts article after article that seems designed to piss people off and get them arguing. It's irresponsible. It's unprofessional, it's annoying.

I've had it up to here with the fucking OS wars. It's not a valid or helpful way to look at IT, and nothing much ever really happens to change the balance of power. I've been blocking ZDNet's ads in protest, but I think I'm going to block their site.

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